


loving you best

by dayevsphil



Series: side b: masterpiece theatre (amnesia au timestamps) [10]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Domestic, Established Relationship, Introspection, M/M, Memory Loss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-10
Updated: 2019-12-10
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:41:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21745453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dayevsphil/pseuds/dayevsphil
Summary: Dan helps Phil hang photos back up around the flat. Amnesia AU timestamp.
Relationships: Dan Howell/Phil Lester
Series: side b: masterpiece theatre (amnesia au timestamps) [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1559110
Comments: 10
Kudos: 111





	loving you best

**Author's Note:**

> set between part three and part four of amnesia au, which you can read [here](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1449553) if you're not familiar with it! 
> 
> prompted by judearaya <3
> 
> read and reblog on tumblr [here!](https://dayevsphil.tumblr.com/post/189591737628/loving-you-best)

Now that he's spent a good amount of time with his parents, Phil says that he can handle having photos up around the house again. Dan asks half a dozen times if he's certain before Phil gives into the urge to roll his eyes to high heavens.

"Dan," he says, taking a couple frames out of Dan's hands, "I want to see them."

"Okay, fine," says Dan. He relinquishes the rest of them onto the coffee table, careful not to knock the glass too much. "We had these ones in the lounge."

"Can I help pick where they go?" Phil asks, inspecting the Sims family portraits with a kind of detached curiosity. 

It's tempting to say no, to put the photos back where they belong and just let Phil get used to it, but Dan knows that isn't particularly fair. This is Phil's home, too, no matter which version of Phil he is, and he's got just as much right to decorating it as Dan does. Dan probably would have rearranged the whole flat by now, had their roles been reversed.

"Course you can," Dan says, dropping a kiss to Phil's shoulder.

"I know you told me about this," says Phil. He taps at Dil's face. "But I didn't expect to see them in real life."

"He's our child," Dan says as lightly as possible. "I actually had to talk you out of one of those school pictures frames, I thought that might be a bit much for a joke."

"Oh, like the ones that have all the years?" Phil asks, delighted, as he starts hunting for a piece of wall to rest it against. He ends up putting it on the same shelf as it originally resided, but on the opposite side. Dan thinks he can live with changes like that. "That would've been funny, you should have let me do that."

"They're tacky, I'm never going to let you buy one."

Dan kind of wants to take that joke back, because he's not ready to have the kids conversation with this Phil. He's not entirely sure that he'll ever be.

It's something he's so afraid of them disagreeing on that he doesn't even know where to start with it. They'd built up to that conversation originally with offhand comments and pillowtalk pipe dreams, years in the making, but Dan _knows_ that Phil hadn't always wanted kids in the deep-seated way that Dan does, that it's something he slowly warmed to until he was the one bringing it up seriously.

There's so many holes in Phil's memory right now, and Dan doesn't know if he wants to wait another seven years for Phil to bring it up again or if he wants to rip the plaster off and face Phil's initial terror at the idea. Both options suck. 

To be honest, Dan isn't even sure how this dream would work, now. He doesn't imagine that raising a family is ever easy, but doing so with a brain injury that may or may not be permanent can only add a level of difficulty that they might not be able to prepare for. And that's _if_ Phil is even on the same page as him anymore.

"You'll have to catch me first," says Phil, easy. Dan is jolted back into the present. "How about this? I'll buy the super cool, 'tacky' stuff and you'll buy the, like, practical and aesthetic stuff. I'm sure we can figure out a way to make those styles work together."

Are they still talking about frames? Did Phil pick up on the implications that Dan hadn't meant to drop? Dan chews his lip and decides he doesn't want to know, not yet.

"I'm sure we can," he agrees. He rolls up his sleeves and looks around the lounge. There's something to be said for mixing their styles into a single thing they both love, after all; the stark contrast and pops of colour with all their carefully-placed trinkets makes Dan feel at home here, even though they've always known that this flat is a temporary one. "Where do we want that one?"

**Author's Note:**

> thank you to cat for looking this over and to jude for accidentally prompting this when rambling. you're both wonderful!


End file.
